“The least Columbia University can do is to invite leading scholars on the non-alarmist side to present the case for CO2/climate optimism. For the students … for civil debate … for good public policy.”
I like Lisa Sachs although I have never met her. The director of the Columbia Center for Sustainable Investing allows my challenging comments rather than cancel me like many other climate academics on the Progressive Left. And I can score some points to let the alarmists/activists know that they are short-changing the learning process if not reality itself.
This is a new era of debate about all things climate and energy. Columbia University might well be one of the last bastions of alarmism/activism, like the New York Times. But here comes the loyal opposition ….
I have debated Lisa Sachs before.…
Perhaps it is a last stand and, in some respects, a wake. The “Policymakers Symposium” scheduled for September 17-18 in New York City is described as follows:
National Clean Energy Week is a celebration of the policies, industries, and innovations that power our daily lives while producing no or very little greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the very real technological and political challenges, a clean energy future is in our reach and America is ready to lead the way. Whether attending the flagship Policymakers Symposium or hosting your own celebration, please join us in recognition of all that clean energy can bring: energy independence and economic prosperity.
The pitch?
…Register now for the National Clean Energy Week Policymakers Symposium and secure your place among the policymakers, business leaders and innovators driving change.
“Personal character matters for scientific transparency and honesty. Andrew Dessler does not pass the temperament test in a field of unsettled causality and ambiguous data.”
The intellectual case for CO2/climate optimism in place of doomism and despair is straightforward. As neatly summarized by Steven Koonin (a ‘climate flat earther‘ to Andrew Dessler) in the Wall Street Journal: